Masterminds – My Review

I’m a sucker for White Trash Theater. Still laughing over this one. They amped it up with enough over-the-top shtick that I should be on edge and suspicious, but the true story was so captivating that they got away with it, another kind of heist in broad daylight.

Heist films are a niche where cinema triumphs. The tension, the ticking clock, the suspicious characters, and the reversals all play to the strengths of the medium. There’s something about the allure of the criminal lifestyle and the inevitable complications that grabs the audience by the genitals and won’t let go.

I’m not always impressed with Zack Galifanakis, but he pulled this one off. The others contributed too. It’s a twisty, turning exploration of the American Dream.

My favorite heist/comedy was A Fish Called Wanda, which stands as the best of them all. But second was Disorganized Crime, and now we have Masterminds competing for that slot. As you may imagine, they had the real guy interviewed in the DVD’s Special Features, and he wasn’t originally sold on the crime. The guy, David Ghantt, was tormented that morning, until Steve Miller’s Take the Money and Run came on the radio. He took that as an omen. I shit you not.